Monday, September 21, 2009

Bodybuilding Tips to Increase Your Testosterone Production

By Ricardo d Argence

Testosterone is thought to be the only substance referred to as the "holy grail" of muscle growth. Testosterone, a vitally important muscle-building hormone, is a determining factor when you are trying to build muscle in your body. This is just a sampling of the numerous incredible advantages to elevated levels of testosterone: Increased muscle size and strength, decreased body fat levels, decreased levels of "bad" cholesterol, improved mood and increased sex drive and sexual endurance.

It sounds pretty good because it is great, and in this article I'm going to outline 10 simple steps to naturally increase your testosterone levels and achieve all of these incredible benefits. While these steps will not result in "steroid-like" muscle gains, they will definitely contribute to your overall bottomline results.

1) Your workout exercises should have compound exercises as a foundation. I'm talking about the basic, bread-and-butter lifts such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, rows, chin-ups, dips, lunges and military presses. At the gym, you can maximize your workout with these exercises because they provide the greatest muscle resistance and make your body produce more testosterone.

2) Your intensity and effort should always be at 100% when you are training. If you want to see real muscle mass increases, you have to push yourself to your limit when you work out at the gym. Increasing muscular stress by working out will produce more testosterone.

3) Train your legs equally as hard as your upper body. As you may already be aware, intense leg training can actually stimulate growth in your chest, back and arms. This is due in part to the increase in testosterone that leg training induces.

4) Increase your EFA consumption. Essential Fatty Acids from sources such as peanuts, avocadoes, fish and healthy oils like flax seed, olive and canola are a great way to naturally boost testosterone levels.

5) Eat less soy. Testosterone levels are negatively affected by elevated levels of estrogen, which can be caused by soy protein intake.

6) Do not drink so much alcohol. It has been revealed that alcohol has a remarkable affect on testosterone production, therefore try to limit the nights you might "binge drink" and consume alcohol in moderation.

7) Increase your dietary intake of cruciferous vegetables. Broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, turnips, cabbage and brussel sprouts have all been shown to dramatically reduce estrogen levels, thereby raising testosterone.

8) Lower your daily stress levels. Being overly stressed stimulates the release of "cortisol", a highly catabolic hormone that will cause your testosterone levels to plummet.

9) Have more sex. Becoming sexually aroused increases oxytocin in the system which increases the production of endorphins and raises levels of testosterone.

10) Be sure that you are getting a decent amount of sleep each evening. Your level of testosterone will decrease when cortisol production increases, which can happen when you don't get enough sleep.

Begin implementing these procedures on a regular basis and you will probably experience a substantial growth in your muscle size and strength gains.

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